Each week we nominate a Bengals player for a fake very prestigious award, recognizing their efforts in the previous week's game. The "Unusung Hero of the Week Award" goes to a Bengals player whose contributions get overlooked in the wake of contributions from more obvious players. The players with the more obvious contributions are usually nominated for our weekly MVP feature here at Cincy Jungle.
Past winners of this award have gone to such Bengals players as: Clint Boling, Andre Caldwell, Frostee Rucker, Andrew Whitworth and Thomas Howard. There were a bunch of different players that contributed to the win against the Indianapolis Colts this past Sunday.
So, let's go over a couple of the nominees for this week's "Unsung Hero of the Week Award":
Cornerback Leon Hall was someone who sprang to mind. Hall had his first interception of the season late in the game, which was quarterback Curtis Painter's first turnover of the year. While the defense held it's own overall and held the Colts to a relatively low number of yards, Hall and the other corners were victimized a few times by both Pierre Garcon and Reggie Wayne on a number of short routes that contributed to the Colts' comeback late in the game.
The player we decided to give the week 6 "Unsung Hero of the Week Award" to is wide receiver Jerome Simpson. As the leading receiver of the day, Simpson racked up 101 yards on six, huge catches. Though the Colts' secondary is far from formidable, their gameplan was obviously to key on A.J. Green and Cedric Benson. Simpson took advantage and had a big day. For his second 100-yard game of the season, this one seemed to fly under the radarWhat's more, Bengals fans had been waiting for Simpson to have another big game since having the legal situation hanging over his head.
The only thing that really kept Simpson from being an MVP candidate is the fact that he dropped a couple of catchable balls that would have gave him a huge day and probably would have allowed the Bengals to have a firm grasp on the game earlier than they did. He also didn't have a touchdown catch this week and still doesn't have any on the season.
Who gets your vote this week?